1) wrt blindness. Are you expecting only blind players to play this mud? Are the PCs going to be blind too? That will determine how much effort you need to put into the SetShort and SetLong descriptions of your objects. And regardless if the player is blind or not, there are many things that are relevant for the PC character besides color. For instance, it is vitally important that you describe rooms and objects with dimensions, proximity, size, and texture. These will all be things that will go in the SetShort and SetLong descriptions. Besides, I see nothing wrong with you describing "A crimson-red lion" despite you not knowing what crimson red is. So long as your mud has some Fantasy theme, I think this would add value. When a blind player reads that, it is still distinct from the "A lion" appearing in the room and also provides variety in NPCs. While for the sighted player (if you have any), this adds considerable fantasy flavor to the game. A common lightbrown/blond lion may be a challenge in combat, but a crimson red lion seems more entertaining, whether you know the difference between blond and red or not.

I have to respond to your message point-by-point here, so sorry if the emssage is a bit long.

First of all, I actually am going to join an established mud, as was suggested by another member in the second post. Therefore, yes,there are going to be sighted players much more than blind players.

Yes, not knowing about crimson-red is one thing, but not knowing whether or not we actually do have a crimson-red lion, and if we do, what it looks like down to the smallest detail (E.G. by having seen it in a movie, or in pictures, etc) is completely a different thing. The latter is my problem.

2) This idea that mudcoding (here I mean lib-coding) involves 'lots' of description-writing is nonsense. Lib-coding has almost zero description writing. I have been coding Arcania for over 4 years now and I have not written one object description yet. Now, for area building, that is a totally different thing. Writing descriptions may be 50% of the time you spend on creating an area. But I would argue that writing the descriptions is the most important part of writing an area, as the SetLongs are the means, by which, you tell your story to the PCs. It is really the only thing that the player sees/knows about your area.

-Detah@Arcania

Sir, I never claimed that lib coding requires writing descriptions. I just said I am too much of a beginner in LPC to go and fiddle with lib code, and neither am I able to write descriptions. As I aforementioned, though, I can implement things for the description-writer who does not have any intention of messing with any code (E.G. making an NPC agressive, writing a quest, creating a door, etc).

Now, why would I mention the fact that I am unable to write descriptions? Because when you are appointed as a new admin, you are (most of the time) given an area to work on. Working on areas on your own means writing descriptions plus writing the code. So, I said I cannot write descriptions, so that others would know, in case they are going to ask me to join the staff of their MUD.

Thanks for the responses! Keep them coming! (By the way, I applied to join the mud staff on New Worlds Ateraan (NWA), on which i have played for months, and I am awaiting a response)

There are some kinds of descriptions that actually do make a difference, not because of the beauty of the thing described, but rather because of the words that have been used to describe it. So, for me (I am thinking maybe it would be different for other blind MUDders), the description has a litteral value, not a visual one, meaning, I do not visualize what I read about (I can't). There are some things you can visualize though (walls, some houses, things that you have been involved with, touched, interacted with in real life), but not, say, lions, or bears, or fireballs (which you could never touch without being hurt!).

Regarding other senses, yes. I used to try to feel/listen/smell/taste everything (an interactive fiction habbit), but I just gave up the habbit when I saw that there are not much of those descriptions anyway.

So, that's why I can't write a description. The thing is, logically, the sighted visualize something, then put it into words. I can not visualize many things (depending on the theme) and hence I don't even know how they look, let alone describing them.

Thanks a lot for the responses. I guess I'd go and look for a MUD in which my job, as a beginner coder, doesn't involve creating an area... which reminds me, what could I even do for a mud? Let someone else write the descriptions and then proofread/add the programming stuff for them (E.G. scenery objects, unusual objects that require coding, etc)? If I knew what things there are that I could do, I'd feel more sure of myself and would know what my tasks will be, in the future.

As some of you might know (those who pay attention to the DS channel and such), I have been popping in and out of LPC development again and again. After a good deal of thinking, I have found what the problem is. It is a question that might be too complicated, or might be just asking for too much, so I'll ask, and leave you to judge and to be so kind as to help me along.

I and a friend are planning on starting to program a mud. However, what we have done that has stopped us from going further every time, is that we try to dig too deep (E.G. add new commands while just learning the LPC language, trying to change skills, remove all races so you can be only a human, trying to change sign up questions, etc). Noting that we are both blind (yes, we can't see), you can imagine that we have no love for writing descriptions that are mainly visual. So, I have two questions.

1. Since we really love creating a mud, what do you suggest we do; start our own, or join the staff of another mud?

2. If you answered "start a mud of your own", what mudlib do you suggest? I find DS wonderful, both in terms of support and examples and such, and I do not feel that bad about verbs these days (due to having learned TADS, Text Adventure Development System which offers a similar system). However, what bothers me is the large set of stuff I might never even use at all (E.G. spells, skills, classes, or races), or would probably change (E.G. add new skills, remove existing ones, change the casting system so that, say, there is a 3-second delay between closing your eyes and the spell working, etc). Therefore, seeing that I need a mudlib with the support DS offers, what do you suggest? I am not that good in LPC yet to say whether or not DS allows these stuff being changed, so I do not offer an opinion. I just am trying not to be bogged down by all these features and get to things when I need to change them. That reminds me of the third question (I said two, but an exception? Please?):

3. In case you answered "start a mud of your own" to the first question, where do you suggest we start? Add commands? Modify mud-related stuff (E.G. skills, races, combat, spells)? Since as I said, we have no liking towards descriptions, we're planning on doing the kind of things I talked about above (I know, it requires much more learning and hard work, but we're willing to put the effort into it).

Thank you, everyone. And I hope finally we can contribute something to the wonderful LPMud community.

Hi everyone,Since I'm using Skylib, I was wondering if it's possible to integrate QCS into it? I don't know how much different things it is using from Skylib, but I was wondering if it's even possible so I would go and play with it and see what I can do. Hehe.Thanks very much!

I also consider it a duty of mine to tell you all how much I appreciate the effort put into Dead Souls. A process started by Crat, as I hear, and helped along here and there by others too! So best of luck to everyone that has given me the motivation to learn LPC! Although Dead Souls was being a bit weird for me, I've put it aside to return to, once I have more understanding of things. Intermud is of course the best thing. I've always worked with mailing lists and stuff when it came to other codebases (like MOO or MU), but to actually have channels and such... wow!Good work, every single one of you! At least, you are those that did take the challenge of learning LPC, even if you feel like being a beginner (like I am hehe).And great work, Crat! And also great to hear that there is motivation there and you're not going to put this down.Good luck!

Hello,I'm sorry to have been posting it in the general forum, but I'm really not sure which part it should go to. I'm not sure if the class datatype is an LPC thing or not, but I seem to recall seeing it in some code somewhere and just got reminded to ask. I searched in the LPC manual and found nothing mentioned about classes, but yet again, I remember reading something somewhere about classes that I didn't understand at the time.So can someone please tell me what this mysterious thing is, or if even it exists or it's some part of a fantasy woven by my mind in a night of disturbing dreams? Thanks!

Hi,I figured out what the problem is. Add_command() does override socials, but what I was told is that adding commands to an item with add_item() is the same as add_command(). I didn't know that they meant in results, rather than infunctionality.Thanks!

add_command(pick", "<direct:object> {with|using} <indirect:me>");Now, that's not important, but what I was wondering is that how I can make the commands override socials. Like let's say we have an agree command. On this mud if I add that command, both that command and the social would get executed.Is there a way to prevent the happening of the social?Thanks!